The Borrower (1991)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This is a fairly original film, unfortunately original does not necessarily mean good. Furthermore, it can't quite make up its mind what it wants to be: horror, comedy horror, black farce...An alien is apparently dumped on Earth from a flying saucer, and goes walkabout. Does he kill people? Sure, and no, he doesn't take over them as for example in "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers", rather he rips off the victims head and places it on the old body. There is also a bit of a side plot, a feisty woman detective who shoots a dangerous criminal, then the guy escapes and comes after her. There is all sorts of other stuff too, but seriously, if you think the music is the best part of this film, few will disagree.

Being sentenced to Earth after some unknown problem on another planet, one alien goes on a weird and wild quest to stay alive, one head at a time. What i mean by that is the alien can't survive unless he continues to switch heads, which is awesome! It reminds me of "The Hidden" where Kyle Mclaughlin is fighting an other worldly alien that just wants to drive fast cars and listen to heavy metal. Each movie contains a host alien, but only one contains Rae Dawn Chong! I'm mysteriously attracted to her in this, she pulls a bit of film noir and wields a badge, on the hunt for a rapist murderer. This movie has fabulous gore. There is very little back-round music, mostly white noise, giving it a creepy texture. Some real funny moments, and some nice out of focus stuff (theres a point in the movie where just peripheral to a conversation in the police headquarters a battle takes place between a cop and a wild street tough). The only problem i have with this movie is most of the interactions between Chong and her partner are labored and seem like a pacing problem. But all the sequences with the alien, ripping off heads or hitchhiking or pretending to be a human being, are highly awesome. The end is splat-tastic, a sequel is rumored but never done.

This movie is great! Lots of rad 80's/early 90s style special effects which means lots of gore and sweet mutation scenes! Excellent! The plot is basically about a super violent alien who is banished from his home planet and is sent to earth in the form of a human. The difference between him and a normal human is that he can rip people's heads off to replace his own which allows him to take their form. That being said you know there's gonna be plenty of decapitation action! Imagine THE HIDDEN (also a super rad movie) with less fast cars and more blood and slime. If that's not a killer plot i don't know what is. there is also a couple bare boobs in the mix too. Another plus is that the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. definitely a must for splatter fiends or anybody who digs campy horror!

Ya know, I saw this movie back in 1991 when it came out and I remember really liking this film. Years later I go ahead and buy this movie and had to force myself to watch it. OK, I kind of like the idea of this alien having to switch heads because his head keeps blowing up. Stupid, but could have been fun. Now, this is what I didn't like. Lack of gore, extremely bad music score, and horrendous acting. This movie had so much potential to be a shocking gore fest but decided to go a much tamer route and less serious. This just ruined the whole film. All the way through the movie I kept expecting to see multiple head explosions, a serious score to give the movie some frightening atmosphere, and to have some characters that you actually cared about. Instead, this movie delivers something that a 12 year old kid could write. I can't believe this movie was directed by the same guy that directed "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer". What a horrible disappointment. The only good part of this movie is the last 5 minutes when it finally starts picking up. Unfortuanatly, it still goes nowhere. Highly disappointing and if you are a real horror fan stay away from this movie. Don't even rent it.